Passover Eve at Ukrainian Refugee Center in Lublin
"Whoever is needy, them them come and celebrate Pesach" - Haggadah
This morning, when Rachel and I were starting to prepare for the seders, several elderly women approached us at Hotel Ilan. They have fled Kharkov and Lviv, and are refugees in need. What unfolded in the next two hours is an outpouring of Chesed I lack the words to fully describe.
Since refugees started streaming into Poland, the basement of Hotel Ilan, once the home of Yeshiva Chochmei Lublin, was transformed into the Jewish community’s refugee center. They have been receiving people non-stop. They have rooms with children's clothing, food, baby products, toothbrushes and soap, shampoo and deodorant, pharmacy items and other household necessities.
The oldest woman in the group is sick, accompanied by her daughter, who is also in poor health. We want to help them, but communication is difficult. There is a group of four Israeli 20something volunteers from Hamachanot Haolim here with us who just arrived. One speaks fluent Russian. Between my Polish and Mira’s Russian, and a lot of Google Translate, we speak with these two women who spoke only Ukrainian.
They came from Lviv and are hungry and need a place to sleep. I called Karina in Warsaw, at the JDC and got the hotline number for refugees.
We spoke with the Hotel manager to see if they had more rooms, and thankful there was a free room — a couple just left for Israel this morning. (Thy wished me Chag Sameach as they left for the airport)
David, a volunteer from Seattle who is here at the Hotel, called Isaac, an Israeli who we met who is here with his family making Passover in Lublin. (That’s a whole other story!) I had just made a Siyum with David, Isaac, and his son Michael so we could break the Fast of the Firstborn, and had breakfast together.
Isaac and David will now drive to the refugee center where these two women left their worldly belongings, and bring them back to the Hotel. It’s an hour round trip drive.
I forgot to mention. The refugee center was supposed to be closed for five days for Passover and Easter. I asked the Hotel Director to please re-open it, and offered to have our volunteers staff open it for a few hours. She kindly agreed. The people kept on coming.
This heartbreaking Erev Pesach drama is playing out across Poland, Moldova, Hungary, and everywhere that refugees have made it. Those with resources and friends are finding their way more easily. Those who are poor, sick, without connections are lost in a new country they don’t understand and in terrible need.
Adam shows up from the Jewish community to help take over the distribution center. Rachel is handing out pharmacy items and trying to prepare Charoset at the same time. Our son Shlomo is out with Agnieszka who works for the community getting seder supplies, including table clothes and serving dishes. Naftali is with Jonathan and Natalie who are decorating the dining room to make it feel like crossing the Red Sea. They are about to hand out gift bags to all the residents.
Tzofiya arrived in Warsaw this morning with another Harvard Student. Harvard Hillel sponsored their service trip to Poland and have been very supportive. Tzofiya and Rivka gathered additional Seder supplies from Rabbi Ellis at the synagogue and Karina. A JDC driver will bring them to Lublin. Kamil, the Polish chef here at the hotel and his staff are working feverishly in the kitchen, made kosher for Pesach by two Yeshiva students from the New York area, who volunteered on their way back form Yeshiva.
Rabbi Schudrich from Warsaw, “anything else you need in Lublin before we send Tzofiya on her way?” He’s totally lost his voice.
A Pico Shul member gave us a box of adult undergarment products to bring. He heard they are needed. I ran upstairs to grab them. We pack all of them in a donated rolling suitcases for this elderly women. We invite them for a hot breakfast. They are crying. They could not hold back their tears as they thanked everyone. We are crying too.
If this all sounds incredible, it really is. There is no way that any one group or organization could have orchestrated this. We have volunteers from all over the world, and Passover supplies from four countries. I am overwhelmed with emotions. The combination of volunteerism, generosity of spirit, and Divine providence, is remarkable. Inspiring.
When we sit down tonight at the seder, and say “let all who are hungry come and eat,” who will be able to keep from breaking down in tears?
Friends, I have so many more stories to tell you. But we must rush and prepare Seders for a hundred and thirty people. We hope to create a dynamic and delicious Seder that will bring joy and solace to children and families who have lost everything and are strangers in a strange land.
As we say tonight at the Seder, “Whoever is needy, them them come and celebrate Pesach!… This year we are here; next year may be in the Land of Israel! Now we are slaves; next year may be free.”
Chag Sameach.
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